Upshot: We acknowledge that our model can be implemented with different reinforcement learning algorithms. Subsystem formation has been successfully demonstrated on the basal level, and in order to show full subsystem formation in the communication system at least both intentional utterances and acceptance/rejection need to be implemented. The comments about intrinsic vs extrinsic rewards made clear that this distinction is not helpful in the context of the constructivist paradigm but rather needs to be replaced by a critical reflection on whether (...) one has truly created autopoietic agents or just an engineering system. (shrink)

Open peer commentary on the article ““Black Box” Theatre: Second-Order Cybernetics and Naturalism in Rehearsal and Performance” by Tom Scholte. Upshot: My aim is to show that “truthful” acting that emerges through improvisation is equivalent to the development of mutual forward models in the actors. If these models match those of the audience members, this is perceived as “truthful.”.

Motivation: Classical definitions of information, such as the Shannon information, are designed for open loop systems because they define information on a channel which has an input and an output. The main motivation of this paper is to present a closed loop information measure which is compatible with constructivist thinking. Design: Our information measure for a closed loop system reflects how additional sensor inputs are utilised to establish additional sensor-motor loops during learning. Our information measure is based on the assumption (...) that it is not optimal to stay reactive and that it is beneficial to become proactive through increased learning about the environment. Consequently our information measure gauges the utilisation of new sensor inputs to generate anticipatory actions. We call this information measure "predictive information" (PI). Findings: Our PI is zero if the organism uses only its reflex reactions. It grows when the organism is able to use other sensor inputs to preempt reflex reactions and is able to replace reflexes by anticipatory reactions. This has been demonstrated with a real robot that had to learn to avoid obstacles. Conclusion: PI is a new measure which is able to quantify anticipatory learning and, in contrast to the Shannon information, is calculated only at the inputs of an agent. This information measure has been successfully applied to a simple robot task but its application is neither limited to a certain task nor to a certain learning rule. (shrink)

Open peer commentary on the article “Constructivism and Computation: Can Computer-Based Modeling Add to the Case for Constructivism?” by Manfred Füllsack. Upshot: The environment is not slowly constructed by the agent but is an integral part of being an agent because both, agent and environment, are part of a closed loop system. By identifying the perturbations impacting on the loops, with the help of second-order cybernetics, the agent can identify them as its environment.

Purpose: This article investigates the emergence of subsystems in societies as a solution to the double contingency problem. Context: There are two underlying paradigms: one is radical constructivism in the sense that perturbations are at the centre of the self-organising processes; the other is Luhmann’s double contingency problem, where agents learn anticipations from each other. Approach: Central to our investigation is a computer simulation where we place agents into an arena. These agents can learn to (a) collect food and/or (b) (...) steal food from other agents. In order to analyse subsystem formation, we investigate whether agents use both behaviours or just one of these, which is equivalent to determining the number of self-referential loops. This is detected with a novel measure that we call “prediction utilisation.” Results: During the simulation, symmetry breaking is observed. The system of agents divides itself up into two subsystems: one where agents just collect food and another one where agents just steal food from other agents. The ratio between these two populations is determined by the amount of food available. Key words: Social systems, constructivist paradigm, cybernetics, double contingency, symmetry breaking, emergence. (shrink)

The author reflects upon her role as a public health nurse striving to attain practice authenticity. Client assessment and nursing interventions were seemingly sufficient until she became curious about ‘Who is this person sitting across from me?’ and ‘What are her experiences in the world as a lone parent living in poverty at the margins of society?’ The author begins to think that she could shift from mere client investigation to pure wonderment about the Other by imagining herself as a (...) researcher, an explorer of another's life world. Ultimately this process enables her to enhance the ‘caring’ in her practice with the knowledge gained of the perceptions and meanings impoverished clients assigned to their everyday lives. Jurgen Habermas’ theory of communicative competence serves as the reference map guiding exploration. The author uses Habermas’ theoretical principles of intersubjective mutuality – the validity claims of comprehensibility, truth, sincerity, and legitimacy. Comprehensibility embodies understanding, an attitude of unconditional acceptance, and care respect of another's individual person and self‐defined reality. Intersubjective mutuality also requires that one dwell in the moment with the Other, satisfied that communication is founded on truth. Sincerity implies fostering the Other's expression of authentic self apart from oppressive distracters. Lastly, legitimacy reconciles the author's altruistic pursuit to know the Other's ontological truth with the reality of the present world. (shrink)

Background Despite news reports of morally distressing situations resulting from complex and demanding community-care delivery in Canada, there has been little research on the topic of ethical conflicts experienced by community-based health care professionals. Research aim To identify ethical conflicts experienced by community nurses. Research design Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and then relevant text was extracted and condensed using qualitative content analysis. This research was part of a larger grounded theory project examining how community nurses manage ethical conflict. (...) Research context and participants Community nurses, including 13 public health nurses and 11 home care nurses from two Canadian provinces, were interviewed. Ethical considerations Study approval was granted by the Health Research Ethics Authority of Newfoundland and Labrador and by provincial health authorities. Findings Seven ethical conflicts were identified and assigned to one of two groups. In the grouping categorized as challenges with obligations or risks, the ethical conflicts were: (1) screening for child developmental issues knowing there is a lack of timely early intervention services; (2) encountering inequities in the health care system; (3) not fulfilling principles, goals, and initiatives of primary and secondary prevention; and (4) feeling powerless to advocate for clients. The remaining ethical conflicts were categorized as challenges with process, risks, and consequences, and were: (5) jeopardizing therapeutic relationships while reporting signs of a child at risk; (6) managing confidentiality when neighbors are clients; and (7) supporting client autonomy and decision-making but uncertain of the consequences. Conclusions Research investigation will continue to be important to raise awareness and mobilize ethics supports as health care services are steadily shifted from institutional to community settings. Moreover, with heightened potential for communicable disease outbreaks across international borders from global warming, community nurses around the world will continue to be required to address ethically-difficult care situations with competence and compassion. (shrink)

Future state maximisation offers a clear departure from both fixed reactive systems and systems that learn models based on reactive experience. In this commentary, I argue that FSX is not ….

Pan es un dios peculiar en muchos aspectos. Al contrario que los restantes dioses del panteón griego, él no es antropomorfo, sino que tiene patas, cola y cuernos de carnero. Un dios con características tan arcaicas sólo puede sobrevivir confinado a la Arcadia, una región que conserva numerosos arcaísmos religiosos. Sin embargo, a partir del 490 a.C. en que se instaura su culto en Atenas, el dios comienza a cambiar. En su evolución, Pan se asimila cada vez más a Dioniso. (...) El acercamiento entre ambas figuras deja su huella en el mito, pero sobre todo en el culto. Así, un dios que en Arcadia era venerado en santuarios construidos por la mano del hombre, en el resto de Grecia recibe culto en parajes agrestes, fundamentalmente cuevas. No parece casual el hecho de que también fuera de Arcadia la gruta sea el lugar reservado a los cultos mistéricos, incluidos los dionisíacos Pan is a god peculiar in many respects. In contrast to the other gods of the Greek pantheon, he is not anthropomorphic, but he has the legs, tail and horns of a goat. These features show his age. A god like Pan can only survive in Arcadia, a region that preserves many religious archaisms. However, from 490 BC, when his cult is established in Athens, this god begins to change. In his evolution, Pan becomes increasingly assimilated the god Dionysus. The rapprochement between the two gods left his mark on the mythology, but especially in the cult of Pan. Thus, a god who was worshiped in Arcadia in sanctuaries built by men, in the rest of Greece is worshiped in wild shrines, mainly caves. Out of Arcadia, the grotto also is the place reserved for the mystery cults, including the Dionysian ones. Does not seem a coincidence. (shrink)

Esposito claims that current algorithms are divinatory. I agree with her, but for different reasons. Her point is that they are divinatory because they only use correlations, but current algorithms….

The New Evil Demon problem has been hotly debated since the case was introduced in the early 1980’s (e.g. Lehrer and Cohen 1983; Cohen 1984), and there seems to be recent increased interest in the topic. In a forthcoming collection of papers on the New Evil Demon problem (Dutant and Dorsch, forthcoming), at least two of the papers, both by prominent epistemologists, attempt to resist the problem by appealing to the distinction between justification and excuses. My primary aim here is (...) to critically evaluate this new excuse maneuver as a response to the New Evil Demon problem. -/- Their response attempts to give us reason to reject the idea that victims of the New Evil Demon have justification for believing as they do. I shall argue that this approach is ultimately unsuccessful, however much of value can be learned from these attempts. In particular, progress in the debate can be made by following those who advance the excuse maneuver and make explicit the connection between epistemic justification and epistemic norms. By doing so, the questions being debated are clarified, as is the methodology being used to attempt to answer them. (shrink)

There are various equivalent formulations of the Church-Turing thesis. A common one is that every effective computation can be carried out by a Turing machine. The Church-Turing thesis is often misunderstood, particularly in recent writing in the philosophy of mind.

Philosophy of history is analyzed here from the point of its epistemological and ontological meaning. The author considers that the ontological point of view makes it possible to conceptualize the history as the unity of its all times - Past, Present and Future. The connection between these three times based on their relation to the concept of Eternity which has been symbolically formed within the mythological, religious and utopian Weltanschauung. The necessity of these relations transforms philosophy of history into a (...) special kind of ontological historical knowledge. The study of history from the prospect of unity is only possible within the historical interpretation of Future as an epoch of bridging the gap between Time and Eternity. Author calls this philosophical concept the Time of Freedom. (shrink)